Australian PM calls for vote on leadership

Julia Gillard calls for vote on leadership

By Martin Parry

SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Thursday called a vote on the leadership of the ruling Labor Party, bringing to a head an increasingly bitter and ugly row with predecessor Kevin Rudd.

Ms. Gillard said a vote would be held on Monday when Parliament resumes, after Mr. Rudd dramatically quit as Foreign Minister while in Washington on Wednesday amid reports Ms. Gillard was planning to sack him for undermining the party.

“Australians are rightly sick of this and they want it brought to an end,” Ms. Gillard told reporters of a battle for power that has been variously described by ministers as a “farce,, “soap opera” and a “comedy.”

She said she would again stand, and were she to lose would retire to the backbench and renounce future claims to the leadership, calling on Mr. Rudd to do the same.

“For far too long we have seen squabbling within the Labor Party which has obscured the government’s achievements and what we are doing to build a stronger and fairer Australia for the future,” she said.

Australia’s government has been torn by speculation about whether Mr. Rudd, whom Gillard brutally ousted as prime minister in mid-2010 but who remains popular with voters, would mount a bid to return to the top job.

He is yet to formalize his plans but in a clear pitch to caucus members, Mr. Rudd cited his record as prime minister, declaring the achievements of his government were formidable before boarding a plane back to Australia.

He laid out four key priorities under a government he would lead, including restoring business confidence, maintaining a strong manufacturing industry and continuing health and education reform.

In a broad hint that he wants his old job back, the 54-year-old said Ms. Gillard could not win the next elections due in 2013.

“I do not believe that Prime Minister Gillard can lead the Australian Labor Party to success in the next election,” he said, adding that he was encouraged by the support he had received for a return to the top job.

“I have many more calls to make but their overall argument to me is that they regard me as the best prospect to lead the Australian Labor Party successfully at the next federal elections.”

On current numbers, Mr. Rudd is likely to lose the vote and be banished to the backbench. His other option is to vacate his seat, which would bring Labor an unwelcome byelection in his Queensland precinct of Griffith.

Local newspapers say around 49 MPs in the 103-member Labor caucus are backing Ms. Gillard with 37 for Mr. Rudd and 17 undecided. A majority is required to win, although these numbers are shifting daily.

Ms. Gillard said her message to colleagues was that the party needed to unite after the vote “and get on with the job that Australians expect us to do.”

“I expect to win,” she said.

Since Mr. Rudd’s sudden resignation, senior ministers have been lining up to savage him in what has become a vitriolic and divisive showdown.

Treasurer Wayne Swan, who has cancelled his attendance at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Mexico this weekend to help Ms. Gillard, called Mr. Rudd a “deeply flawed” man whose weaknesses were not seen in public.

But Mr. Rudd does have his backers, notably Senator Doug Cameron, who has been vocal in his support. Others reportedly include Immigration Minister Chris Bowen and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese.

The person most likely to benefit from the government’s implosion is opposition leader Tony Abbott, who called the leadership battle “an embarrassment.”

“It looks more and more obvious at the moment that this is a great country that is being damaged by a seriously bad government,” he said.

Lingering animosity between the two Labor leaders has resulted in months of covert political warfare, with Ms. Gillard’s supporters accusing Mr. Rudd of trying to undermine her.

This month, a news documentary revealed Ms. Gillard’s staff had worked on her “victory speech” for two weeks before she successfully ousted Mr. Rudd, even though she always presented herself as a reluctant rival who only decided at the last minute to challenge him.

Someone countered on Ms. Gillard’s behalf by posting an obscenity-riddled video of then-prime minister Rudd ranting about the shortcomings of his staff as he tried to record a speech in Chinese. The video out-take apparently came from archives in the prime minister’s office.